Reading Espionage Fiction

This nuanced study of carefully-selected works emphasises the importance of narrative plot, unsettles the boundaries of genre, and highlights the complexity of political undercurrents in the literature of espionage. -- Conor McCarthy, author of Outlaws and Spies: Legal Exclusion in Law and Literature
Interrogating the "ranking system" of genre fiction, Martin Griffin’s superb, original study of the cloak-and-dagger worlds forged by an array of authors and literary texts—spy thriller exemplars Maugham and le Carré vis-à-vis MacNiece’s poetry and DeLillo’s postmodernism—is destined to retrace literary criticism’s quest for the imagined sleeper agent. -- Gary Edward Holcomb, author of Claude McKay, Code Name Sasha: Queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance
Reading Espionage Fiction by Griffin (Univ. of Tennessee) is an excellent study of espionage fiction from WWI to the modern era. Griffin explores ideas about plot and plotting, the spy as the embodiment of international war on a small scale, and most importantly, a reading of espionage fiction as literature rather than mere genre fiction. As Griffin puts it, his book is “an experiment in thinking beyond genre but without ignoring its legacy or affordances” (p. 5). To that end, he eschews populist authors like Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum to focus on literary authors like W. Somerset Maugham, John le Carré, and Gerald Seymour. There are chapters on English nationalism in WW I, the interwar fiction that seemed to prophecy WW II, the playful postmodern novels that stretch the genre to its limits, and the experiences of African Americans and women in espionage fiction. Griffin’s most effective argument is that spy fiction exposes, on a narrative level, the political ideologies that cause large-scale conflict. Griffin’s book is a rich survey of espionage fiction and its literary and political dimensions. Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- L. D. Mosher, Normandale Community College * CHOICE *